Hopefully someone can reproduce these, they go bad all the time.

And that is that. Funny As hell to me . Where is my Shadow troll WISEGUY telling me how awesome and Great and reliable these Node Boards are .. But this is isolated to just you somehow i am sure .
No other Boards Die /
Next try all Distributors.. None will have any.. Then Perhaps like the Pinball Dudes store they will have to Post WTB node bOard # Such and such and hope someone out there has one like the one i sold them to get a GOT Le back up and running.. If not for me and my GREAT Node board the game was a paper weight.

Good Thing my Kiss LE came with that Extra Node board or they were Sheet out of luck.. Good luck to you and your Homepin /Pro/Prem Or LE . Hope you can find what you need but you will find it almost as easy as finding a Dodo Bird .

what / Hearsay / BS > These are the Best Boards EVAH >

Is it mainly ones next to the flippers that are failing from vibration?

Uff

Glad I'm living in your head rent free.

Didn't Gomez put out a few videos on Stern's youtube about the node boards? Still haven't released any schematics?
I image 100% of any new boards are going into new games $$

Schematics are available, contact Stern Support.

Operate WPCs and be happy. Operating is rough. Sometimes you make more with the machines turned off, lol

https://sternpinball.com/support/
scroll all the way down
they don't have them for every node board, but it's helped me a few times.

What a totally unexpected and surprising situation

Nobody expected the Spanish inquis...err...parts shortages.

Seriously though, plenty of people called this when the node board system was revealed with the throwaway board concept.

Time to invest in SMD equipment for repairing these things. Or, find one of a few people who have tackled repairing them.

Check pinwiki too. It's a bit easier to figure out what schematics are available from the layout there and which board nodes are what, and possibly play musical chairs with node boards if you have multiple games.

https://www.pinwiki.com/wiki/index.php/Stern_SPIKE%E2%84%A2_System_Repair#Schematics

Some are out, but not all. They seemed to release a batch of them after demand for them reached critical mass, but after that, I don't think additional ones have been released. Of course, no new schematics only serves to make repairs more difficult with newer boards when there are no replacement boards available.

My cabinet node board (behind coin door under left flipper) failed about a month ago. I've been patiently waiting. I got the same reply about contacting a stern distributor. In the meantime I'm lucky enough to have a buddy that sacrificed one of his boards so I could still play mine. He's playing musical chairs now with the node boards in his collection. It totally sucks though. Listed for $70 on stern site and over $200 and out of stock everywhere else. Boo

ok Neegan / lol nice. I just picked up a TWD By The way .

Somebody get him a Node Board . and Op Post a WTB node board # you need . There is a bunch of Nodes

This is what happens when companies start operating under the throw away mentality.
It’s this way with appliances cars and much more.
No support,no parts lots of “upgrades” and excuses.
I like old shit. They changed systems and hardware much less frequently back then so there was way more carry over and support. Much better chance of finding useable and serviceable used parts to keep things working.

What is wrong with your cabinet node board?

I repaired one for a friend, which a transistor shorted and kept the shaker motor locked on in his JPLE.

I literally smoked a voltage regulator at U14 on the board while in the middle of a game. When it blew the entire playfoeld went dark and you could smell the smoke. My buddy toastin is trying to repair it for me but some of the parts are hard to come by right now. He replaced U14 and some other parts in the circuit. Still having an issue with one of the outputs.i think he said the 3.3V section.
Screenshot_20220321-222445_Gallery (resized).jpg

D4 and D15 looks to go to that U14, so diode test them so see if one is shorted. Wouldn't hurt to test all the diodes really.

What mods are in the game?

Ok will do. Only electrical mod is a shaker motor. I borrowed a board from my buddy and everything is functioning normally with his board, including the shaker. Thanks

Never had a Node board go bad on the route I helped with, and that was over a dozen pins, both pro and premium over the 3 years or so I helped the operator.

Borygard here on Pinside repairs them. Hit him up and see if he can help you out.

remember the old “no need for fuses on these node board systems, they will shut off on their own before damage occurs” lol.

The OP never did say what node board was needed for which pin. Probably a ghostbusters board or another early spike title?

The bottom line is the modern sterns are pretty reliable. The node board repair threads I was following all dried up.

Through hole boards were fine, but modern pins offer so much more. Multiple LCD screens with high-res animations and video clips, RGB inserts and RGB GI, more callouts than you can count, rules that fill volumes, loads of hi-fi songs, network capability, light shows with 100+ lamps going, high scores for all sorts of actions, tons of operator settings for fine tuning, co-op modes, wizard mode challenge selections, over the air updates, etc, etc.

Do I need all that stuff? I enjoy my old pins very much, but the good old days of burned connectors, leaky batteries, and rusty bulb sockets weren't that good.

Which generation of games are these node board failures prevalent in? Spike 1, Spike 2, etc. ?

Genuinely not trying to be a jerk - asking to keep my JP Pro safe. Where did you get your shaker motor?

Not being a jerk st all, totally understand. My game is a spike 2 GOTG Pro.I beleive its a cointaker motor. The shaker motor was in there when I bought it a couple years ago. The shaker motor isn't the issue or the cause. It still works fine with a borrowed node board in the game. I wish it was as simple as that so I could have that aha moment to point the finger at something but it seems like the board just failed over time unfortunately. I don't think there is any way to prevent it. Some games never have an issue and some do.just a roll of the dice.

Weird that it would fail like this. It’s got short circuit protection built in (according to the data sheet) and that’s usually bullet proof (hence the lack of old style fuses on the 12V rail) and tested to the wazoo by the chip manufacturer as it’s such a basic feature for a regulator.

Did something in your machine (maybe wires with damaged insulation) somehow connect the 48V rail to the 12V?? If so, this will eventually happen again. I’d spend a few hours going through the 48V wiring with a fine tooth comb on your game.

Give me SAM any day. No burned connectors, no leaky batteries, no rusty bulb sockets. Switch out a transistor for pennies. Plenty of nice game and lighting features.

Price of my XMEN LE just went up again, lol. It takes thousands and thousands of plays for anything to blow on SAM boards.

I’m assuming all you operate is pins? Be somewhat thankful. What if you had jukeboxes, pool tables, cranes, Golden Tee etc? Need a TouchTunes monitor? Tough shit. Pool table cloth? Hah! No dice. If you can find them, 2” rubber ducks for duck cranes have doubled in price, and the max anyone will sell at once is 5000. How about the wonderful video card for the dumpster fire called Golden Tee Live? Games havent had a software update available in almost 24 months so they’re not earning, and now the video cards are nearly unobtainable. When you find them, they’re $500. IT’s solution-Golden Tee PGA. Absolute shit show. We’re just letting Golden Tee die! (If anyone wants a Golden Tee Live 2021, PM or call me, I’ll sell or trade for pins). Lonnie, maybe you’re right, he’s possibly profiting more with a game or two down! Lol. Really not really. $4/gal fuel to run route? I drive 60k miles a year.

It’s frustrating with Stern (I’ve been waiting on a GZ Prem part since December with no lead time known), but it’s not just Stern with delays in coin op, and it’s not just coin op, it’s every industry. I don’t have many friends that AREN’T business owners, and they’re all saying the same thing as me…we grossed more money the past 18 months than I could’ve imagined. We also spent more money the past 18 months that I thought possible. Gross sales are up 25-35%, but profitably is down 35-50% due to the outrageous COGS. It’s every industry. Home builders, lawn care, restaurants, oil field manufacturing, bars, bowling alleys-the list goes on and on and on

GT live video cards>>>

The links do not seem to be working, But these video cards are on ebay under 200. If you take out "arcade, pinball and even golden tee" in your search you will find most of these parts cheaper.

For a GT1050Ti? No. Maybe an older card that runs slow, but for the 2021 software, you’ve got to have the 1050 card.

Yep,, zotac GT 1050 ti cards are under 200

I wouldn't be so sure, I think coin taker was the supplier of the Shaker motors that were destroying cabinet node boards. There is a bulletin about it you can find at Stern- basically if you have a visible capacitor between power and the case of the Shaker motor it's drawing too much current and will blow that node, it's not going to blow it up right away, you should at least check that my dude before being too comfortable

good deal. They didn’t used to be that cheap on eBay. I’m still gonna throw all those piece of shit GTs in the river

What's the background to your post? Very strong response as third post.

https://sternpinball.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Stern-SB184.pdf

Not that I can find but I'll go through it again. It has been working well with the borrowed board so far. I'll check everything out again though.

Thank you, I will definitely check this out when I get home.

Thanks for the link. Going to check this later

Jay at http://www.funhouseamusements.com/ has and can fix node boards. Give him a call. He fixes everything for operators in the area.

Thank you Habo

Oh, there was an aftermarket shaker installed? From reading the schematics for the cabinet node board, there isn’t anything on the 12V side that would protect against the overvoltage from a switched inductive load nor back EMF from a motor. I would only hook up a Stern approved shaker.

I’m okay with paying for a new board at some point if something goes wrong with my TMNT, I just hope they’re available in greater supply and the troubleshooting isn’t too hard to grasp.

If I were an operator I’d be pretty bummed if my new ish game were down for an extended period not making money.

Stern definitely needs to take spare parts more seriously. With 10's of thousands of Spike 2 games having been produced there will be failures. They should create a refurbishment program where you ship in your damaged board and they send back a refurbished board. For a fee of course. Providing some sort of safety net for failed unobtainium parts would gain them a lot of credibility.

Here's a picture of my shaker motor. It doesn't seem to be the cointaker one with the cap. No idea if this is a stern one or not. I can't find any manufacturer markings on it. Comparing pics online it looks to be a Stern shaker but if it is, it is missing the update kit.

20220322_113637 (resized).jpg

Screenshot_20220322-120335_Word (resized).jpg

How do we know the shaker wasn't the cause? Could it be as simple as, the borrowed node board hasn't been rattled to death for 2+ years? I can't imagine adding something that feels like it's trying to destroy my game from the inside.

I would think nudging a game does the same thing. At the end of the day it's a circuit board, they shouldn't be susceptible to vibrations or cars,planes,etc would constantly have issues.

Node boards are great!

Sure - but this problem with stern pre-dates COVID by a long shot. Stern has always been crap when it comes to service inventory and long-term parts support is a joke. Stern treats service inventory as something they were obligated to do, but have no interest in actually doing it or making it successful.

Stern has inventory - they are building the games. They just won't let service obligations supercede new sales. Which tells you what you need to know... new money is more important that good product and good customer service.

They are all basically clones - there isn't a advantage to using a Stern 'approved' shaker.